The War of Independence (American Revolution)

On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched from Boston to forestall (предотвратить) a rebellion of the colonists by capturing a colonial arms depot f'dirpou] (склад) in the nearby town of Concord ['loqkDid]. At the village of Lexington [’leksigtan], they confronted 70 militiamen. Someone — no one knows who — fired a shot, and the American War of Independence began. The British easily captured Lexington and Concord, but as they marched back to Boston they were harassed (подвергаться нападкам) by undreds of Massachusetts volunteers. By June, 10,000 American soldiers had besieged [bi’si:d3] (осаждать, окружать) Boston, and the ^r sh ^were forced to evacuate the city in March 1776.

1) In May 1775, a second Continental Congress had met in Philadelphia and began to assume the functions of a national government. It founded a continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington, a Virguiia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War. It printed paper the money and opened diplomatic relations with foreign powers. On July 2, 1776, on Congress finally resolved “ That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.’’. Thomas Jefferson [tomss ’cfcefasan] of Virginia [va’djinis], assisted by others, drafted a Decia ration of Independence, which the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776.The Declaration presented a public defense of the American Revolution, including a lengthy list of grievances against the British king, George III. Most importantly, it explained the philosophy behind the revolution — that men have a natural right to “Life, Liberty and the, Pursuit of Happiness”; that governments can rule only with “the consent of the governed”; that any government may be dissolved when it fails to protect the rights of the people. This theory of politics came from the British philosopher John Locke, and it is central to the Anglo-Saxon political tradition.At first, the war went badly for the Americans, The British captured New York City in September 1776, and Philadelphia was captured a year later. The tide turned in October 1777, when a British army under General John Burgoyne [b3:'g3in] surrendered at Saratoga [saera’taugs], in northern New York. Encouraged by that victory, France seized an opportunity to humble Britain, her traditional enemy. A Franco-American alliance was signed in February 1778. With few provisions and little training, American troops generally fought well, but they might have lost the war if they had not received aid from the French treasury and the powerful French Navy.After 1778, the fighting shifted largely to the south. In 1781, 8,000 British troops under General George Cornwallis were surrounded at Yorktown, Virginia, by a French fleet and a combined French-American army under George Washington’s [dp:d3 'wD/irjtsn] command. Cornwallis surrendered, and soon afterward the British government asked for peace. The Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, recognized the independence of the United States and granted the new nation all the territory north of Florida, south of Canada and east of the Mississippi River.
23.3 To areas by Outstanding Natural Beauty refers the Giant’s Causeway ['djaiants 'ko:zwei] which is a massive formation of some 40 000 basalt columns descending like a giant staircase into the sea and which lies on the north coast of Northern Ireland near Portrash, county Antrim [’aentrim].
24.1 Проанализировать книги Шекспира (Юлий Цезарь и Ричард,3) и Айвенго.
24.2 Geographic position and general characteristics

The USA is the fourth largest nation in the world (behind Russia, Canada and China). It is situated in the western hemisphere ['hemisfis], continental USA is situated between l atitudes 24° and 49°north and between longitudes 66° and 124° west.. The United States of America is washed by the Atlantic ocean, the Pacific ocean, the Arctic ocean and the gulf of Mexico. The total area of the USA is 9,372,614 sq. km (continental U.S. plus Alaska [ae'laesks] and Hawaii [hs’waii:]); 19,924 km of coastline; 27 % grain; and pasture; 19 % cultivated; 32% forest; 22% urban, mountain, desert and other. The vast and varied expanse of the United States of America stretches from the heavily industrialized, metropolitan Atlantic seaboard, across the rich flat farms of the central plains, over the majestic Rocky Mountains [nki ’mauntinz] (Жартасты таулар — Скалистые горы) to the fertile, densely populated west coast, then halfway across the Pacific to the semi-tropical [semi'tnpikalj (субтропикалык — субтропический) island-state of Hawaii. Without Hawaii and Alaska the continental U.S. measures 4,505 kilometers from its Atlantic to Pacific coasts, 2,574 kilometers from Canada to Mexico ['meksiksu]; it covers 9,372,614 square kilometers.The land in the United States of America varies from heavy forests covering 2,104 million hectares, to barren deserts, from high-peaked mountains (McKinley [ma'kinli] in Alaska rises to 6193.5 meters), to deep canyons [’kaenjan] (Death Valley ['deO ’vasli] in California [kaeli'fomwj is 1,064 meters below sea level).Today, with 1,214 million hectares under cultivation,.American farmers, wheat (жазгы бидай — яровая пшеница) on the cold western plains; raise com, wheat and fine beef cattle in the Midwest, and rice in the damp heat of Louisiana [lukzi'aens]. Florida ['fbrida] and California are famous for their vegetable and fruit production, and the cool, rainy northwestern states _are known for apples, pears, berries and vegetables. In the states of Delaware ['detewes], Maryland [’meraland], Virginia [va'dsinia], North and South Carolina [кэггэЧатэ], and Georgia [’chpidjis], the soil is generally rich. Except for some swampy coastal areas, the soil is mostly red-yellow clay. And in early colonial times, that soil was very fertile. The long growing season, abundant rainfall, warm climate and relatively flat land made the southern coastal region ideal for certain cash crops. At various times, these included tobacco, rice, sugarcane, com and cotton. Most soil in the South was originally very fertile, but the continuous growing of demanding crops such as tobacco and cotton took nutrients from the soil. In addition, the frequent heavy rains of the region tended to erode — wear away — exposed topsoil. In many areas, this led to a decline in the yield of crops per hectare. Climate

America is a land of physical contrasts, including the weather. The southernparts of Florida, Texas [’teksss], California, and the entire state of Hawaii, have warm temperatures year round; most of the United States is in the temperate zone, with four distinct seasons and varying numbers of hot and cold days each season, while the northern tier of states and Alaska have extremely cold winters.

The Great Plains (Великие равнины) region is drier than the land east of the Mississippi [misi'sipi]. Rainfall ranges from around 40 inches (103 cm) a year on the eastern rim of the Great Plains to less than 18 inches (46 cm) a year in the western portion. Summers on the Great Plains can be very hot, about 110 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius) and dry. Summer rain, when it comes, is usually in the form of fierce thunderstorms. Both droughts [draut] (засуха) and floods are common to some parts of the vast region. On the Great Plains, the seasons of spring and autumn tend to be brief. Winters, particularly in Montana the Dakotas [da'ksutaz], Wyoming, Nebraska [m'braeska], Iowa [ aiaua] and Minnesota [mini'sauts], can be very cold. Temperatures often dip as low as — 40 degrees Fahrenheit (also — 40 degrees Celsius.) Fierce, windy snowstorms, or blizzards, are not uncommon. The biggest mountains in the USA are the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachians [aeps’leitfian] Mountains, the Cascade Mountains (Каскадные горы), the Sierra Nevada [si'era na'vcnda]

mountains, the Coast Ranges (Жага жотасы — Береговые Хребты).

_ Rocky Mountains are known as “ the backbone of the continent ” or the continental Divide. The Appalachians, which run roughly parallel to the east coast, are old mountains with many coal-rich valleys between them. The Coast Ranges lie west of the Pacific valley at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The Cascade Mountains extend from the Canadian border southward through Washington and Oregon [’origan]. There are large gold deposits the Sierra Nevada Mountains.Table lands, plains and lowlands are the Central Lowlands, the Colorado Plateau [lota'rcndau ’plaetau], the Great Plains. The Central Lowlands are the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Missouri [mi'zusri]. The great tableland, through which the Colorado River has carved deep canyons, is called the Colorado Plateau. The Great Plains are situated west of the Central Lowlands.The United States is also a land of bountiful rivers and lakes. The northern state of Minnesota [mini'sauta], for example, is known as the land of 10,000 lakes. The broad Mississippi River system, of great historic and economic importance to the U.S., runs 5,969 kilometers from Canada into the Gulf of Mexico — the world’s third longest river after the Nile [nail] and the Amazon ['аетэгэп]. A canal south of Chicago [fi'kaigau] joins one of the tributaries of the Mississippi to the five Great Lakes — making it the world’s largest inland water transportation route and the biggest body of fresh water in the world. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which the U.S. shares with Canada, connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean, allowing seagoing vessels to travel 3,861 kilometers inland, as far as Duluth [d9*lu:8], Minnesota, during the spring, summer and fall shipping season.The biggest US rivers are the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Columbia [кэ'1лтЬ1э], the Colorado and the Rio Grande [’гкэи ’graendi]. The chief western branch of the Mississippi is called the Missouri. The chief eastern tributary ['tribjstsri] (взен тармагы — приток) of the Mississippi is called the Ohio [3u'hai9u|. (Locate where they flow). The Great Lakes are Lake Superior jsur'piaris], Lake Michigan [’mijigsn], Lake Huron [’hjuaran], Lake Erie [’iari] and Lake Ontario [эпЧеэпэи]. The five Great Lakes make the biggest body of fresh water in the world. Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario form a border between northeastern United States and Canada. Lake Michigan lies entirely inside the Unites States. The frontier experience of moving westward and breaking new ground gave Americans several traditions. One was a tradition of wasteful uses of natural resources. Land, water, timber ['timbaj (курылыс агаты — строевой лес, древесина) and wild animals seemed so plentiful that people on the frontier thought these resources would never run out. For a long time it was easier and cheaper to abandon worn-out farmland than to nurse it back to productive use. By the mid-1800s the need to conserve natural resources acquired a special urgency. The buffalo [ЪлЕэЬи] herds were rapidly disappearing. So were many other wild animals, including wolves, passenger pigeons (кешпел1 кегершш — странствующий голубь), fur seals ['fa: si:l] (тещз итбалыгы — морской котик) and sea otters [’3ta] (кама, кэмшат — выдра). Forests were being destroyed by logging ['bgir)] (агаш дайындау жэне тасу — заготовка и транспортировка леса) and forest fires. Rivers and lakes were being clogged (ластау — засорять) and polluted with the waste of logging and mining.

Several naturalists called for action by the American people and government to save the nation’s natural heritage, campaigned vigorously for a national effort to save those natural wonders for future generations. It was largely through their efforts that wilderness lands were set aside as public parks. The first of these was the Yosemite [jau'semiti] Park in California. This consists of a beautiful valley surrounded by cliffs [klif] (куламалы/тж баурай крутой склон) and pinnacles fpinskl] (шьщ — вершина, пик). Giant Sequoia trees [si'kwDia] (секвойя) and other rare plants grow there. Yosemite was made a national park in 1890, but it wasn’t the first. That honor went to Yellowstone, a 2.25 million-acre (one million hectares) tract of wilderness land established as a national park in 1871. President Theodore Roosevelt, who knew and loved the vast, unspoiled beauty of American West, began fighting for conservation as soon as he came into office in 1901. Sweeping provisions made to conserve the natural resources ° the nation were among the most important achievements of the Rooseveltadministration. National parks and national forests were set aside as reserves after 1901 and a National Park Service was set up to administer them in 1916. The National Park system is an American example of conservation that has since been imitated by many countries around the world. Private groups and government agencies came into existence to regulate and restore wildlife, to conserve soil and water, and to manage fishery resources. Starting around 1880, a number of- programs were set up to reclaim eroded land. Fanners were encouraged to buy or build small windmills to pump irrigation water out of deep wells. Later, rivers were dammed and irrigation canals built to provide additional water. Farmers introduced new types of wheat which could resist cold winters and hot, dry summers, and experimented with contour plowing (plowing along the contours of the land in order to minimize soil erosion) and crop rotation (eric айналымы — севооборот) methods. More recently, agricultural researchers have developed a method of planting without plowing. Known as conservation tillage, it involves leaving the previous crop's residue ['rezidju:] (eriH калдыгы — остатки) on the surface to lessen soil erosion. Then, instead of scarring ['ska: m3] (жаралау — повреждение) the soil with plow blades, rows of tiny holes are punched (тесу — проделывать отверстия) in the soil to accept the new seeds.The westward flow of settlement across the United States first led to wasteful attitudes and practices. Later there developed a popular grass-roots [grais 'ru:ts] (Heri3i — основа, источник) concern for natural resources that gains strength year by year. Americans have pioneered many conservation efforts. In the creation of large national parks and forests, they’ve set an example for the world.

24.3 The national flower of England is the rose, of Northern Ireland the shamrock, of Scotland — the thistle, of Wales — the daffodil and the leek.

#25 1. Discovery of North America and New England Settlements.

Around the year 1000, a party of Icelandic Vikings under Leif Ericson sailed to the eastern coast of North America. They landed at a place they called Vinland [Vinland]. Remains of a Viking ['vaikiq] settlement have been found in the Canadian province of Newfoundland. The Vikings may also have visited Nova Scotia [nauva ’skau/a] and New England. They failed, however, to establish any permanent settlements, and they soon lost contact with the new continent.

Five hundred years later, the need for increased trade and an error in navigation led to another European encounter with America. In late 15th-century Europe, there was a great demand for spices, textiles and dyes from Asia. Christopher Columbus, a mariner from Italy, mistakenly believed that he could reach the Far East by sailing 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) west from Europe. In 1492, he persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance such a voyage. Columbus sailed west, but he did not reach Asia. Instead he landed on one of the Bahama islands in the Caribbean [ka’ribian] Sea.

Columbus eventually explored most of the Caribbean area. He never reached the Far East; but he did return home with some gold, and within 40 years treasure-hungry Spanish adventurers had conquered a huge empire in South and Central America. The Spanish also established some of the earliest settlements in North America— St. Augustine in Florida (1565), Santa Fe in New Mexico (1609) and San Diego California (1769).

The Europeans were initially drawn to the New World in search of wealth/ When Columbus and later Spanish explorers returned to Europe with stories of abundant gold in the Americas, each European sovereign hastened to claim as much territory as possible in the New World — along with whatever wealth might be extracted from it. The first successful English colony in the Americas was founded at Jamestown [’cfjeimztaun], Virginia, in 1607. The settlement was financed by a London company which expected to make a profit from the settlement. It never did. Of the first 105 colonists, 73 died of hunger and disease within seven months of their arrival. But the colony survived and eventually _grew and became wealthy. The Virginians discovered a way to earn money by growing tobacco, which they began shipping to England in 1614.

In New England, the northeastern region of what is now the United States, several settlements were established by English Puritans. These settlers believed that the Church of England had adopted too many practices from Roman Catholicism, and they came to America to escape persecution in England and to found a colony based on their own religious ideals. One group of Puritans, called the “Pilgrims,” crossed the Atlantic in the ship Mayflower [’meiflaus] and settled at Plymouth ['plimaG], Massachusetts ['maesa'tfuisits] in 1620. A much larger Puritan colony was established in the Boston area in 1630. By 1635, some settlers were already migrating to nearby Connecticut.

The Puritans hoped to build “a city upon a hill” — an ideal community. Since that time, Americans have viewed their country as a great experiment, a worthy model for other nations. New England also established another American tradition — a strain of often intolerant moralism (страсть к морализированию, нравоучениям). The Puritans believed that governments should enforce God’s morality. They strictly punished drunks, adulterers, violators of the Sabbath ['sajbsO] (воскресенье — священный день отдохновения у христиан) and heretics ['heratik]. In the Puritan settlements the right to vote was restricted to church members, and the salaries of ministers were paid out of tax revenues. One Puritan who disagreed with the decisions of the community, Roger ['radjs] Williams, protested that the state should not interfere with religion. Forced to leave Massachusetts in 1635, he set up the neighboring Rhode Island [raud 'aitand] colony, that guaranteed religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The colonies of Maryland, settled in 1634 as a refuge for Roman Catholics, and Pennsylvania tpensil’veima], founded in 1681 by the Quaker ['kweiks] leader William Penn, were also characterized by religious toleration. This toleration, in its turn, attracted further groups of settlers to the New World.

Over time, the British colonies in North America were also occupied by any non-British national groups. German farmers settled in Pennsylvania, Swedes [swi:d] founded the colony of Delaware, and African slaves first 1619. In 1626, Dutch settlers purchased Manhattan

Island from local Native Americans, or “Indian” chiefs and built town of New Amsterdam [aemsts'dasm]; in 1664, the settlement was ^red by the English and renamed New York.

2 The life of Shakespeare: 1564-1616

The mysterious death of Marlowe, the Cambridge graduate, and the brilliant subsequent career of Shakespeare, the grammar-school boy from Stratford, have caused some to speculate that his secret service activities make it prudent for Marlowe to vanish from the scene - and that he uses the name of a lesser man, Shakespeare, to continue his stage career. Others, similarly inclined to conspiracy theories, have convinced themselves that Shakespeare's plays are the work of the statesman and essayist Francis Bacon.

Snobbery rather than scholarship seems to underpin such arguments. Their proponents find it hard to accept that the unknown boy from Stratford should have created the crowning achievement of English literature.

The truth is that William Shakespeare is not such an unknown figure, and the education provided in England's grammar schools of the time is among the best available. Shakespeare's baptism is recorded in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26 April 1564 (this is only three days after St George's Day, making possible the tradition that England's national poet is born, most fortunately, on England's national saint's day).

Shakespeare's father, John, is a leading citizen of the town and for a while a justice of the peace. It is a safe assumption (though there is no evidence) that Shakespeare is educated at Stratford's grammar school.

In 1582, at the age of eighteen, Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway. Their first child, Susanna, is baptized in 1583, followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585.

There is then a gap of several years in the documentary record of Shakespeare's life, but he is involved in the London theatre - as an actor trying his hand also as a playwright - by at least 1592, when he is attacked as an 'upstart crow' in a polemical pamphlet by Robert Greeene. In 1593 he publishes a poem, Venus and Adonis, following it in 1594 with The Rape of Lucrece. Meanwhile he has had performed the three parts of Henry VI and, probably in the winter of 1592, Richard III.
The London theatres are closed for fear of the plague during 1592 and 1593 apart from brief midwinter seasons, but in 1594 things return to normal and Shakespeare's career accelerates. He is now a leading member of London's most successful company, run by the Burbage family at the Theatre. Patronage at court gives them at first the title of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. On the accession of James I in 1603 they are granted direct royal favour, after which they are known as the King's Men.
Shakespeare's share in the profits of this company, operating from the Globe on Bankside from 1599, makes him a wealthy man. Most of the subsequent documentary references relate to purchases in his home town of Stratford.
In 1597 Shakespeare pays £60 for a large house and garden, New Place in Chapel Street. By 1602 he has enough money to purchase an estate of 107 acres just outside Stratford, and he continues over the next few years to make investments in and around the town. In about 1610 he begins to spend less time in London and more in New Place, where he dies in 1616. He is buried in the chancel of the Stratford parish church.
Shakespeare has shown little interest in publishing his plays, for like others of his time he probably regards them as scripts for performance rather than literature. After his death two of his colleagues, John Heminge and Henry Condell, gather the texts of thirty-six plays which they publish in 1623 in the edition known now as the First Folio.
2 Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America.

Scott's novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor.

Although primarily remembered for his extensive literary works and his political engagement, Scott was an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, and throughout his career combined his writing and editing work with his daily occupation as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire.

A prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh, Scott was an active member of the Highland Society and served a long term as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–32).